As an airbag that restrains the heads of occupants of an automobile, a curtain airbag is used. The curtain airbag is disposed in a cabin of the automobile near a corner where a ceiling portion and a side surface portion intersect each other and inflated along side door windows and the like by a gas introduced through a gas introduction port.
In an automobile equipped with the curtain airbag device, in the case where the automobile is involved in an accident such as a side collision or an overturn, the curtain airbag is inflated toward a lower side of the vehicle body along a side surface (for example, door or pillar) in the vehicle cabin, thereby restraining the heads of the occupants and, when the window is open, preventing the occupants from being thrown away from the vehicle.
As such a curtain airbag device, a curtain airbag device is known, in which a folded body of the curtain airbag is disposed in a space between a roof side rail and a side edge portion of a roof lining, and a lower edge of the side edge portion of the roof lining is engaged with an upper end of a pillar garnish (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-69721).
In the curtain airbag device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-69721, when an inflator operates, a gas is introduced into the curtain airbag through a gas introduction portion provided at an upper edge near a central portion in a front-rear direction of the curtain airbag, thereby inflating and deploying the curtain airbag. The curtain airbag presses and opens the side edge portion of the roof lining toward the inside of the vehicle cabin so as to be inflated and deployed in the vehicle cabin.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-69721 describes a technology in which, in order to prevent the curtain airbag, which is being inflated and deployed toward the inside of the vehicle cabin, from interfering with an upper end of a pillar garnish, a small bag portion is attached to an upper edge portion of a main body of the curtain airbag so as to be bulged. When the folded body of the curtain airbag is inflated, the small bag portion (referred to as “upper edge side bag portion” in Japanese Unexamined Patent Applicaation Publication No. 2007-69721) is inflated so as to press the curtain airbag main body toward the interior. By doing this, the curtain airbag being inflated and deployed extends beyond the upper end of the pillar garnish so as to move toward the interior, thereby being deployed in the vehicle cabin.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-52907 describes a technology in which a gas introduction path, through which a gas from an inflator is introduced into inflatable portions of a curtain airbag, extends in the front-rear direction along an upper edge portion of the curtain airbag. When the curtain airbag is folded, a portion of the curtain airbag below the gas introduction path is folded into an elongated folded body in the front-rear direction, and then the gas introduction path is bent so as to be disposed on a surface of the folded body on the exterior side.
With the technology described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-52907, when the gas is discharged from the inflator, the gas from the inflator initially flows into the gas introduction path so as to inflate the gas introduction path. Thus, the folded body of the portion of the airbag below the gas introduction path is pressed toward the interior by the inflated gas introduction path. As a result, the curtain airbag being inflated and deployed extends beyond an upper end of a pillar garnish so as to move toward the interior, thereby being deployed in the vehicle cabin.